Friday, March 26, 2010

There's a new sport my parents are playing around the house. It's called Fly, Fly Away. More accurately, Zap the Mosquito. You use what looks like a small plastic rechargeable tennis racquet with a flower design to electrocute the flying creatures. Mama plays it in the garden; papa wants to practice his backhand with it. The racquet sparks when it comes into contact with something in the air. Most times, I think it's just lint in the air.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The house has changed quite a bit since December, when the two-man crew began repairs. Tiles in the kitchen and bathroom have been replaced; the whole ground floor has been repainted. The room that took the most damage during Typhoon Ondoy was our office/study.

This was taken last week, when the door had not been varnished yet and the paint stripping not yet complete. The flooring was re-tiled with vinyl that looks like carpet. The warped plywood wall is now made of marine plywood. There's something beautiful about the unfinished state. The echoes inside an empty room makes me imagine it as a shell of a hollow soul.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

I'm not sure if this had something to do with my deadline, but I had a sweet craving last Saturday. My mid-morning drink of choice: Starbucks Hot Chocolate straight from the one-kilo tin that's been sitting in the kitchen for a while now. I made two cups, both of which I drank because my brother didn't want one. I ordered Hot Chocolate at Starbucks a few days prior, so I know they taste exactly the same.

After dinner, I opened the gold foil pack of French Truffles that has been in the fridge for at least two months now. I was afraid the contents would be spoiled, so I tasted one cautiously. It was so good that I had to have another one. And another. And another.

This mixture is really a Ganache that is rolled into mis-shaped rounds to look like the real truffle fungus that grows around the roots of trees in France and Italy. Once the truffles are formed they are then rolled in cocoa powder to simulate the 'dirt' that the real truffles grow in.

Still, they're fantastic melt-in-your-mouth desserts. I'm not even the type who eats plenty of chocolate, (just a square or two at a time), but I'm afraid I'll finish the whole pack by myself (there are about 60 pieces).

The day before that, my brother recommended the anime series Gallery Fake, based on a Japanese manga. This is not what you expect your art education to come from, but it's an entertaining source nonetheless. Watch it here.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Call us an unlikely bunch of patriotic citizens, but my friends and I love the Philippines and want to do help build the nation in our own small way. Good news: IAmPinoy.me is now in beta. At the moment, we are still focused on the elections, which is only a few days away. But this is not about flag-waving and hand-over-heart gestures. Our long-term goal is more organizational. Are you part of an NGO? We'd like to know what you do.

There's a lot of work to be done, but we'll take it one step at a time. We're all volunteers. Here's a bit more about us. Stay tuned for updates.

===

The irony will not be lost on you.

I have mixed feelings about David Byrne's Here Lies Love. You can't figure out whether to be proud or ashamed. The title song is my LSS for the week, thanks to Sara Meier and Vicky Herrera of U92's The Dollhouse. They played it when they had a special guest: Imelda Marcos herself. It's a moment that makes you want to cut yourself up into two, and you don't know whether to be happy or sad when you do. Here is that track.

Stereogum posted this video of "Please Don't". Interesting archive of footage from that era.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

A tiny initiative of mine, an attempt at fostering a sense of community among Pinoy Erasmus Mundus students and alumni. I'm asking them to pin their location on Umapper so we can find out where we are. So far only 20+ out of all the 130-something have marked their locations, and some are semi-successful attempts without names and courses. Many of the earlier batches probably don't know that we have a yahoo group and blog, so I hope they find out about all these. May kilala ka bang EM? Spread the word.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Time to update podcasts. Two of my latest picks come from familiar networks. Modern Manners Guy comes from the Quick and Dirty Tips network. (That sounds ironic, no?) You'll hear Grammar Girl's voice in the outro. It's strangely comforting. Stuff Mom Never Told You from the How Stuff Works network has two girls instead of two guys (as in Stuff You Should Know). Reluctant feminists unite! Then update your psychology knowledge with the latest studies from Scientific American's 60-Second Psych.

And then there are the independent podcasters. Bill Wilson's Wine For Newbies is very informative, even if you don't consider yourself a wine drinker. It will be useful when you give out bottles as presents at Christmastime. Charles Hodgson's Podictionary is for word nerds who dream of becoming etymology semi-experts. His voice sounds cutest (in a grandfatherly way) when reading ads.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Boys and girls, be careful what you post and link to. You might just get a special request you can't refuse. My post yesterday about my karaoke habit has led me to this. Tada! An mp3 of an actual duet with a stranger. This is me singing A Whole New World with phildec78 who sounds like Brad Kane. So here's my best Lea Salonga impression for Rico, who has given me the much undeserved title of Online Karaoke Queen (naks!). Download if you dare.

Knowing that whatever you upload always comes back to haunt you, I am not posting a video. But the file will be available for a week and if you feel like sharing to make fun of me, keri lang.

And Ian, before you feel ashamed for me, there are 21 fandubs with phildec78's version alone and some of them are pretty good. I'm not in such bad company. Subukan mo. :)

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

I have a confession to make. I sing with strangers. Go ahead, laugh. I don't mean I walk into videoke bars and take the mic. (The gay host will think I'm not singing because I cannot be heard. My voice is so small that everything I sing sounds Disney-fied even when it's Celine Dion--when I have the courage to attempt her songs.) Instead I look for singing partners on Youtube like mrbroadwaydork, SungHero and mss12000. I go mainly for showtunes backing tracks, but the occasional pop song slips through. But no, I'm not uploading the resulting recordings. I was about to put a 93-second clip of five spliced soundtrack themes, but I stopped myself before I could embarrass myself that much. It's enough that you know these things. :)

Monday, March 8, 2010

Storytellers will find jawbone.tv intriguing. If that's not enough for you, Swarm Entertainment's other projects, Rekill and Nawlz, are great eye-openers to the possibilities way beyond your bedtime read-along.

Friday, March 5, 2010

And my brother left the house all of a sudden to play human pillowcase to his friend who just broke up with someone. I don't know what the signs are up to, but judging from Facebook, quite a number of people were left cold after Valentine's. If you're one of those people (TMI: ditto), I have just the thing. NPR's All Songs Considered podcast had an episode of breakup songs last month, with everything from the truly painful to the truly awful, plus engaging commentary. It's brilliant. You can still save your own playlist of rub-it-in-will-ya crying songs (I'm know keeping mine, possibly forever), but the NPR hosts will make you feel that you are not alone, at least not for 1 hour, 11 minutes, 11 seconds. Check it out here. Your heart will thank you. You might even consider leaving a donation on the box on your way out. Now excuse while I go back to my karaoke...

Monday, March 1, 2010

After the craziness of February, it wouldn't make a difference if I start my birth month off on uneven footing. I am doing what I can to get back into the groove of blogging and studio work, and things are slowly shaping up. Let's reverse feng shui March with links that will make you react in an interesting way. Let's go.